In the first of a series, asylum campaigner John Grayson examines the Direct Provision (DP) system for asylum seekers in Ireland. Part-two will examine the private companies involved in providing services under DP.

On 7 September, an unnamed Polish man died in hospital after self-harming at Harmondsworth detention centre. Twelve days later a Chinese man was found dead at Dungavel in Scotland. Two deaths in twelve days making a total of four deaths already this year.

Although the recent conviction of aristocrat 4th Viscount St Davids for ‘menacing’ online hate crimes against Gina Miller rightly received widespread national publicity, many other similar crimes slip by quietly if local media outlets do not publish the details.

The government’s widely-condemned post-Brexit proposals for EU citizens should be used to highlight the unfair and discriminatory immigration laws to which they will be subjected, particularly those limiting family reunification, which currently apply to British citizens and settled migrants.

Some media responded to the Manchester suicide-bomb attack by attacking liberals, while other extreme-right news outlets and personalities ridiculed the value of coming together in the face of terrorism.